In Peru, well two of us.

My son and I returned to Peru last Wednesday.  We are so excited and blessed to be back but it is starting to set in that mama and the rest of the girls aren't here and boy do we miss them.  I know the time will go by, but 7 weeks seems like ages at this point. Besides that though things are going well.  It was so great to be back with my church and see the growth and new faces.  Everyone did amazing while I was gone.  I am so blessed to be surrounded by such a good team.  This Friday I get to preach the gospel at a one year anniversary of a school that a family in our church runs.  What an opportunity to share Jesus.  I love being back!  I love my church and I love to see what the Lord is going to do this next year.  Thanks so much for all the love and support.  Be praying for my son and I though while the girls are still stateside.  We will have fun skating and hanging out, but we really do need the others to be complete :)

Furlough is upon us.

The final days are upon us here in Peru before we head to the States for a time.  We are filled with mixed emotions to be sure.  While we know we need to go to the States and visit our supporters and give reports of the Lord's doings here, it is so hard to leave.  My son and I will only be there for a month and then my wife and daughters will be there into December.  As I prepare some things and get some things in order before I leave on monday, I already am missing my church and the people and our new ministry at the skatepark.  I am love my church and the people I pastor and I love what the Lord is doing and we are just torn right now but we know that it will be a blessing for us to go visit and eat some food we crave :)

Please just be praying for us and our emotions and that we would have a fruitful time in the States and pray for everyone here in Peru also.  I am so blessed by such a great group of leaders and servants who take care of the Lord's work when we are not here.  I am not worried at all for the ministry here.  We are just going to miss it and everyone.

Thanks so much for the love and support.  See you soon.

Totally blown away by the Lord's grace to us.

I wanted to share just some incredible news that has happened for us and just to show how much the Lord cares about all the little details.  I pray that it will encourage you as you read this and see just how gracious our God is.

This year I had planned on not returning to the States for furlough and my son was going to be staying in Peru with me.  My wife and my three daughters were planning on still going to the States and they were staying for two months and nine days.  There were several factors in my decision not to take a furlough this year but one of the main reasons was financial.  My wife and daughters got all their tickets and everything was set.  As time got closer and we continued to pray about this situation and we both felt uneasy and didn't think it was the best idea for our whole family to be apart for such an extended time.  We decided we have to do what it takes for my son and I to go on furlough even if it is only for a shorter time.  So we came to the conclusion that my son and I will go back for a month and that way our time apart as a family is cut in half.  We looked for tickets and there was a crazy good deal and the Lord provided so we jumped on them.  The only problem was it is on a different flight than my wife's.  The girls all fly out and go from Lima to Miami and then have a 10 hour layover and then into Los Angeles.  They arrived in Los Angeles at 7pm or something like that and the last flights to San Francisco end about that time so they ended up getting a hotel for the night and then the following morning they would fly up to SFO.  The tickets that my son and I got were from Lima to Los Angeles direct.  We arrive in Los Angeles at 7am.  So we said no big deal we will go skate a couple of the famous skateparks and wait for the girls and then we will all head up to SFO in the morning.  My son and I got a pretty good deal and my poor wife has to deal with our 2 year old by herself now and it a long layover and my oldest daughter loves to skate and so she is bummed also.  So we said lets just call the airline and see if they will change it.  Well they wouldn't, but they said if we make any changes to your itinerary you don't have to accept and then you can change all your tickets for free.  Well to make a long story short, they made some changes and so they changed all my girls to my flight for free so we all get to travel together and we all get to skate some pretty amazing skateparks!  The Lord totally worked it out for us and we are so thankful and overwhelmed by His blessing of allowing us all to be together.  He cares about all the details and I am blessed He worked it out in our favor.

A Lunch Invitation

Today was such a wonderful day in the Lord.  Earlier in the week we got invited over to the house of a newer member of the church.  I have only talked to him very briefly on several sunday mornings and never anything substantial.  So when he wrote me and asked my family to come over we were excited but did not know what to expect.  To our surprise it was a beautiful time.  He had his girlfriend of four years there, his sister, and his brother and his wife and kids.  After we ate, we sat down and just began talking about the Lord and how He works and what happens in your life when you come to know the  God of grace.  My wife and I got to explain the joys of fellowship with Christ.  I really feel that he invited us over to share with his family.  He had sown some seeds and he wanted us to come and confirm all that he was saying was true.  One of the questions they asked is "what do you think we could do to improve our culture?"  And the answer to that every time is for the gospel to take hold.  I could have said a number of things.  I could have said stop throwing garbage everywhere.  I could have said well you need clean water.  I could have said improvement of a number of things but in the end really, the only thing that truly matters is knowing Christ in all His glory.  As I have studied missions and the impact of missionaries, the one thing that made a lasting difference was when people came to Christ.  Many have gone and given better homes and clean water and taught people how to have better infrastructure but with little emphasis on the gospel.  After these missionaries left, more than not, the communities went back to their old ways.  Where the missionaries went in to preach the gospel, all those areas improved and lasted longer.  So when asked what can improve our community and our culture, the only answer in faith in Christ.  With this it opened the door so easily to share all about the good news of our Lord Jesus.  It is times like these that we are so thankful for.  Carlos (the young man who invited us over) told me that he had never experienced a church like ours.  He told us when you walk in it there is so much love.  He said I feel like it is a family.  He said never has he heard the Bible taught like the way we teach it.  For us, there is not a better or higher complement and there is nothing to be more proud about.  Jesus said by this they will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.  What a testimony to the grace of God in our church.  The members are making others feel loved and like family when they walk in.  The Word of God is being preached and lives are being changed.  I love our people and our church and I am so blessed to be part of it in a small way and I am so excited to see what the Lord continues to do.  One of my pastors use to always say, "I want everyone who walks in here to be the most loved on people!"  I want to live a life like that.  I want everyone to know how loved they are when they walk through Refugio's doors.  The funny thing is, my wife so beautifully explained to them, that everyone can have this love if they come to trust Christ, because He pours His love through you to others.  Let us be conduits of God's love and grace.  Let us be salt and light.  I am so thankful that God showered me with love and grace because I am really so unlovable.  I am sure you are as well.  What a great God we serve.

Soli deo Gloria

Little Spurgy for the morning!

"Sinner, the devil says you are shut out! Tell him that 'whosoever' shuts out none. 
Oh that precious word, 'whosoever'….Remember there is the same Christ for big 
sinners as for little sinners; the same Christ for grey heads as for babes; the same 
Christ for poor as for rich; the same Christ for chimney sweeps as for monarchs; 
the same Christ for prostitutes as for saints: 'Whosoever'.  I use broad words that 
I may take a broad range, and sweep the whole universe of sinners through- 
WHOSOEVER looks to CHRIST shall LIVE!"

Charles Spurgeon

God's faithfulness

As I look out the window and watch the clouds roll over the mountains like a waterfall coming into the valley, I sit in my office reflecting on how faithful the Lord has been to my family and I.  Sunday was our 4 year anniversary of moving to Peru.  A wide range of emotions hit me.  I never thought I would serve the Lord in the capacity that he is allowing me to.  I never thought I would see His hand so visible in my life and ministry.  The road the Lord brought us down to get us here is overwhelming.  From heartbreak to times of elation and back again.  When we first began to heed the Lord's call, we thought without a doubt we were going to a small Eastern Eurpoean country.  We spent a minute over in Latvia and made life long friends and pray for the Lord's hand to touch that country, but the Lord had other plans for our lives.  We were devastated but the Lord was in control.  Not ever even thinking of Peru, we moved here to just get accustomed to living in South America.  We had plans of maybe going from here into Brazil.  The Lord had other plans.  Our hearts began to break for some of the practices we started to see.  We developed a deep love for the people we were getting to know.  Step by step the Lord was opening doors for us.  3 years ago we planted the church.  We have our ups and downs.  We have our struggles.  Sometimes I want to throw myself this huge pity party.  I want to invite all of pity's friends.  Doubt, despair, failure, fatigue and all the rest.  I read my Bible every day.  I use a Bible reading plan.  But sometimes I am just reading and not listening.  Sometimes I am not paying attention to God's Word.  It is almost just like I am going through the motions.  I tell myself, "you have to read the Bible because you tell everyone from the pulpit to do that!"  So I do, but sometimes I am doing it but more concerned about getting to the passage that I will be preaching from Sunday.  So today in the chilly Andean air, I thought "I need to just slow down my reading plan.  I need to pick up God's Word and hear His voice and then do what He is telling me.  I need Him to encourage me and maybe even shake me up a little."  By God's providence I decided to go to 2 Corinthians and just do some personal study.  Study for my soul.  Am I selfish, no.  How can I help others if I first haven't been ministered to by the Lord?  Well I couldn't get past chapter one and I didn't need to.  Tomorrow I will press on, but I needed to hear what the Lord has spoken through the Apostle Paul in chapter one.  I had to cancel my party for pity.  Paul had been through the washing machine!  Paul was in the trenches and you know what, He was praising God and loving what he was called to do.  But I was overwhelmed by Paul's joy in what the Corinthians had become.  He tells them that one day they will boast of him and that he will boast of them.  There are people here in Peru, who have touched my life.  There are people in Peru who have made me a better pastor, a better Christian, and a better person.  And I know that there are people who can say the same of me.  I do not say that to brag in a prideful way.  I say that broken and humble because it is not me but the Lord who gives the grace and power.  I am just a vessel.  I am just a tool in the Master's hand.  When we get over ourselves and look at what an unbelievable God we serve and the mission that we each are called to do and that all of us can have an impact on others through the grace that the Lord has bestowed upon us and through His power, I have to say, any struggle or hardship that we face is worth it.  As Paul says, we go through things sometimes just so we can help others when they go through it.  We are all usable by the Lord.  The real question is are we willing to allow the Lord to work through us?  It is not easy, but His grace is sufficient.  There are people in your life, right now, who need to know about how good Jesus is.  They don't know where to go.  That's ok, cause Jesus told us He is sending us.  Go to them.  He might not be sending you to the Andes or to the plains of the Sahara.  But he might be sending you into your kids room.  Into your office. Into your grocery store.  In 4 years living in a foreign land I have learned more about the grace of God than I ever had.  And it isn't because I live in a foreign land but it is because I realized how desperately I need it.  Let me encourage you, desire to know the grace of God and the power of Jesus's resurrection.  I would not trade a moment of what I have been through and I am so excited to see what the Lord continues to do.  There is no greater joy than walking the path the Lord sets before our feet.  Don't try to step off because it is too hard.  Don't try to run to fast because it is going good.  Enjoy every step and praise His name for the lot He has given.  May the Lord bless you today and may you be bold in His grace.

Soli deo Gloria

Struggles and Warfare

As I am studying Galatians to preach this sunday I am just overwhelmed by the struggle that the Christian life is.  Yesterday was an amazing day at church.  We had a very large team from the States join us and that was nice, but as I was reading the text that I was going to preach on, I saw one of our locals, a girl who I baptized last month.  She walked in and sat down.  What caught my eye is who walked in with her.  It was her mom!  Her mom has never walked into our church.  She has only said hello in passing.   She did come to the baptism but was very stand offish.  Her mom is a devote Roman Catholic.  When I saw her I almost lost it.  My eyes filled with water and I had to do everything in my power to hold back from weeping uncontrollably out of joy.  It was such the providence of God that she came that morning as well which was another reason I was so moved.  The text we were looking at was such a powerful text on the grace of God and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It laid out salvation so clear.  It contrasted works verses faith.  As soon as the message was over I walked right over to her and told her the joy in my heart to see her there and she gave me a huge smile and hug.  I have no idea if the Spirit of God took the word of God and got it from her ears to her heart.  I pray that it did and she will come back.  It was such a blessing to see that.   Another couple though talked with me about their family who have been coming over the last month.  They as well are devote Roman Catholics.  They have a daughter who is 15 and she is so in love with our church and told her parents she wants to be baptized a Christian and they got so upset.  They immediately enrolled her in confirmation classes, which take place on saturday nights so she can't come to youth group any more.  She is devastated.  At the same time, the family is talking about the things of the Lord with the couple whom I was talking to (their family).  And the couple told the family that God is doing a work in their lives, why else are they talking of the Lord, something they never had done in the past.  The family shared that they want to come to church, but they don't.  Sunday they came to the door, but then left.  There is a battle going on.  The flesh against the Spirit.  And even right now as I write this and study for sunday I have this battle going on.  I want to return to the States.  I want to go back and work and walk away from the ministry.  I thought about a family who hasn't been to church in 2 weeks.  I was broken hearted and just asking God "Why?"  I am burdened over people's souls.  I am burdened that just a few weeks ago, our church was full.  And yet Sunday we were missing several of our members.  And this battle began in my soul.  Here God showered me with this beautiful blessing and encouragement of this mom coming and I am having crazy doubts and feeling of letting go.  In the back row sunday was a man who was our first member 3 years ago and is still coming.  My wife and I always said if we are just here for him, then everything is worth it.  Yet for some reason I don't think about that.  This man's wife and daughter are mormon.  He used to go with his wife to the mormon church and then show up about 10-15 minutes late because he went to their service first.  After several months of sitting under the word of God, he stopped going to the mormon church and is on time.  The Lord is working and sometimes I think I put to much expectation on myself.  We have been seeing in our little fellowship the unity of the body.  Fellowship between different social classes that would never happen on the street here.  It is just the work of the Spirit.  I had been super encouraged and blessed as of late but then here comes these doubts and struggles and the desire to throw in the towel.  Why?  I am not under the threat of death like so many of my brothers and sisters serving in hostile lands.  The Lord is working in and through our church.  There is a battle going on between the flesh and the Spirit.  This is where God has called me and I am doing what He has called me to do.  Success in the kingdom of God is based on faithfulness.  Sure it would be so much easier for me to return to the States to a job I loved and a job that I did for over 17 years.  That would be easy.  It would be easier to go back to the States and minister in my native language, for sure!  It would be easier to live in a society that I am accustomed to.  All these thoughts have been bombarding me just this morning.  If I choose to focus in on that, I will be defeated. The Lord has given me tons of little glimpses of what He is doing and things that should be motivating me to press on.  I need, like Paul says in Galatians, to crucify the flesh and walk in the Spirit.  The victory is in Christ and through the Spirit of God I can walk in that victory.  How can I have such a wonderful day on sunday but at the same time have such a horrible day on monday?  Because that flesh rears up and shows its nasty head.  Wow to walk in the Spirit is a moment by moment, day by day need.  To kill the flesh is a moment by moment, day by day need.  May God's grace fill you today as it is filling me.  Rejoice in Him and the victory of Christ.  Pray for me as I struggle to remember this and live by this and I will do the same for you!

Soli deo Gloria